My husband has a lot of glassware for his beer. Before I met Bryce, I pretty much just drank my beer in whatever receptacle it was served to me in—bottle, pint glass, red plastic cup, and so on. I was none the wiser to the reasoning behind serving beer in a particular glass shape.

Enter Bryce. The first time I met him he taught me about the best way to drink my Blue Moon, and I haven’t looked back. I learned that there's more to glassware than just making your drink look nicer. Each beer style has its own optimal glass type that works to release the style’s flavors, ergo, making your beer drinking experience as good as possible.

The shape of a glass affects the way beer looks, smells, and tastes. Now I know some of you might be thinking “but I like drinking my beer out of the bottle”, but just bear with me on this.

Okay, here we go.

When picking out a glass, start with the overall proportions—the height and diameter.

If your beer is light in color and low in alcohol, go with a tall & narrow glass. They keep light lagers and ales cold longer, which need to stay around 40 F to remain crisp and refreshing.

If you have a beer that’s dark in color and higher in alcohol, pick a short & wide glass. They allow beer to warm, which releases more aroma. The best flavors and aromas in dark and strong ales and lagers don’t emerge until closer to 50 F.

If your beer is between light and bold, pick a glass of average height and diameter. Proportions are pretty easy, right?

Next comes the shape of the mouth.

When the mouth flares in, it directs beer towards the back of your tongue where you taste more bitterness—good for hoppy beers like IPAs. Flaring in also concentrates the beer’s aroma right at your nose.

When the mouth flares out, it spreads beer to the sides of your tongue where you taste more sourness—good for Belgians, lambics, and aged beers. Flaring out also conforms to your lips, making each sip more comfortable.

Large diameter mouths are for easy drinking—fun for session beers. Small diameter ones are better for sipping—a good way to savor higher alcohol brews.

One cool feature some glasses have is Nucleation Sites – fine texturing inside the glass on the bottom. Nucleation assists in forming and keeping a nice foamy head on beer, because it releases a steady stream of carbonation. Nucleation Sites are added inside the glass by etching, engraving, lasering, or sandblasting after the glass is molded. If you don’t want to replace your nice beer glasses for ones with nucleation sites, it’s okay. Beer Stones achieve the same foamy head effect in any beer glass.

As always, how you drink your beer is up to you. Serving beer in the “optimal” glass is a way for people to get the most out of their beer drinking experience. If your goal of drinking beer is to take your time and explore the flavors, busting out a good glass (and washing it later) is well worth the effort.

This is probably the question we get asked the most when explaining how Beer Stones work. In other words, is the head on my beer good, neutral, or bad?

Most people eventually determine that beer head is a virtue, because it enhances the drinking experience.

That’s all great, but I really don’t want to fight through all the foam to get to my tasty beer.

We get it. Sometimes that foam isn’t easy to work around. Some people feel a beer poured with a head is wasting volume that liquid beer should occupy. And some feel a foamy head is just a bothersome obstacle between them and liquid beer. Heck, they even make “mustache protectors” now days, if that has you worried.

The Whisker Dam stache protector, source: whiskerdam.com

Let’s look at the science behind it. The head on your beer is foam composed of CO2 bubbles (and sometimes N2 bubbles) coated with amino acids. Most beers are carbonated, because it’s a natural byproduct of fermenting beer. CO2 and N2 can also be artificially added to beer during conditioning, packaging, or dispensing.

How does a foamy head improve the beer drinking experience?

As carbonation releases and rises in a stream of bubbles, it carries with it beer’s volatile compounds. If your beer is releasing enough CO2 to retain a head, it’s releasing those volatile compounds to boost the aroma.

The pressurized CO2 in beer actually forms some carbonic acid as well. As carbonation releases to form a foamy head, this carbonic acid decreases. It allows the beer’s flavor to come through more purely. It also reduces the prickly mouthfeel on your tongue, resulting in a smoother texture.

Any carbonation used to form a foamy head reduces the amount of gas ingested, making your beer less filling.

In the end, the choice to have foamy head on your beer is up to you. You’re a grown-up after all. The main takeaway here is that your beer head does serve a purpose. Whether or not you want to take advantage of that purpose, and its benefits, is up to you.

Next time you’re served a frothy beer, give it a chance. You might be pleasantly surprised.